ADDRESS GIVE1T AT OPEUIDG OP Ttitm LIKE' KY BUILDING AT RADCLIEEE 
COLIEGE, CAMBRIDGE, APRI1 27, 1908 
Vy John Shaw Billings, M.D. , LL.D. , &c, Director Dew York 
Publie Lib rary♦ 
The pleasures of pursuit, as compared with those of possession, 
have been the subject of ma y unreported debates, and of a considerable 
amount of literature. You have had the pleasures of anticipation in 
* 
the long and strenuous efforts which have been made to secure this, new 
library building, and, now, at last, it is completed, and you can go on 
to realize the plans which have been the object of your imagination 
and desire. 
I am specially pleased to see that the library purpose of 
the building has been the only object you have had in view, in its plan 
and construction.- Thanks to Mr. Carnegie, it has been easier in re- 
cent years to obtain a library building than almost an:/ other sort of 
building for colleges in this countr-’, and to many it has seemed quite 
natural and proper to provide for as nany other college needs in such 
a building as possible, and,in fact, there are few of the intellectual 
needs of a college which cannot be shown, at least theoretically, to 
depend on, or to be closely connected with, the library. 
The most important part of a library is, of course, the 
books, and of these you already have a good supply, which will,no doubtT 
be largely increased by the fact that you now have a suitable home for 
them. One of the best mottoes for a library is "unto him that hath 
shall be given. " 
A common method in preparing an address for an occasion like 
this is to begin by saying that this new addition to your resources 
brings with it increased duties and resposibilities and then proceed to 
give a few thousand words of advice. I could do this without 
/reat trouble, for I should not be hampered with knowledge of the con- 2 
ditions and modes of work in the college which affect the library. 
It is the "bachelor who advises most freely as to how a man should 
treat his wife and the spinster as to how children should "be brought 
up. 
Nearly all of the eulogistic addresses about libraries which 
have been printed in recent years relate to public libraries, aid espe- 
cially circulating libraries, intended for the use and benefit of the 
great mass of the people, and in many respects do not apply to the 
scholars' library such as you have here- 
It would be interesting to compare this library with other 
college libraries of about the same size, in order to ascertain 
the differences, if any, in the character of the books, and the 
principles which govern their selection. Bor example, does the libra- 
ry of a college for young men differ from that of a college for young 
women, and if so, how? (Observe that I do not ask, "V/hy?") 
Of course, every college library differs from every other 
college library, depending on the character and tastes of the founders 
and of those who select the books for purchase, the special purposes 
of the institution, the nature of the gifts made to the library, etc. 
Of course, also, there are several thousand books that will be found 
in every college library of 10,000 volumes or more, including the 
ordinarv reference books, such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, stan- 
dard histories, biographies and fiction, text books in the different 
branches of science, sets of certain periodicals,etc., also the so- 
called books of power, the sacred books, works of the great poets and 
dramatists, etc* But are there any considerable nurnoer of books 
which will usually be found in the man's college library and not in 
the woman's, or vice versav Perhaps the college liorarians wno are 3 
here to*day might contribute to the world's stock of knowledge on 
this point.]r. Gerould, librarian of the University of Minnesota, pro- 
posed in 1906 a plan for the compilation of comparative university and 
college library statistics and a committee of the American Library 
Association was appointed to carry out this plan. This committee made 
a preliminary report in 19072, but it gives no information on the ques- 
tion which I have suggested. 
So far as I know there is no difference between the libra- 
ries of men's ana women's colleges intended for general education on- 
ly, and having no preparatory courses for special technical instruction, 
but I will refer to this later. 
A library has often been compared to a laboratory for pur- 
poses of research work. There is one likeness between them, which is 
seldom referred to, but to which I would call your special attention, 
and that is that both are liable to become overcrowded with useless ma- 
terial, and to have difficulties in the disposal of their waste pro- 
ducts. 
Por a research in the laboratory special apparatus must of- 
ten be obtained, but when this apparatus has been used for its particu- 
lar purpose, it is often of no further value, except, perhaps, as for 
deposit in a museum as a bit of history. The great majority of books 
lose ail their vitality in ten years, many of them never had any vi- 
tality to lose* 
There is always a possibility that a book which seems useless, 
such as an old City Directory, or an old text book, may be useful to 
1 Library Journal, kov. 1906, v. 31, p* 761 
2 Papers and Proceedings of the 29th annual meeting oi' the American 
Library Association, 190*?, , p* 261 some future student, and the motive of Mrs. Toodles for buying a door 
plate bearing the name of Brown because she (Mrs. Toodles), might have 
a daughter, and that daughter might marry a man named Brown "and then 
it would be so handy to have that door plate in the house”is one that 
appeals to some professors as well as to some librarians. 
A public library necessarily accumulates much rubbish, flavor- 
tedious 
less, namby, pambyt stuff,- hash without salt, which one might suppose 
would never find a reader. But certain publishers know very well 
that there is a demand for this sort of thing, and the librarian must 
remember that he is managing a large public mental restaurant, and he 
must be prepared to give toast water, and broth without salt, to some 
of his customers, although if they demand raw, triohinous pork, or ex- 
cessively gamey birds, he can say that his supplies of those articles 
have not yet arrived. I have said that the character of a library de- 
pends on those who select the books. When young physicians prescribe 
very 
a certain diet for their patients they to be influenced by their 
personal likes and dislikes, and even an old physician with a poor di- 
gestion, (which sometimes appears in old doctors), is sometimes too 
much guided by his own appetites. 
Badcliffe is the only oman*s college I know of where all the 
instruction is given by men, and by men who are professors or teachers 
in a University for men. Its library has been for the most part select- 
ed by these men, each recommending the books considered as most desira- 
ble for the student for reference work in the branch of study which he 
teaches* It is, therefore, almost entirely a reference library, but 
is very little used by the teachers themselves and probably contains 
nothing that would not be found in a man1 s college library of the same 
size. It will accumulate some rubbish, but slowly, unless it comes in 5 
by gifts. There is generally a bad side to good things and this ap- 
plies especially to gifts of books to libraries if accompanied by re- 
strictions as to their disposal. 
As the Harvard Universitj* Library is available for research 
purposes to the teachers and students of this college, and as that 
library follows the plan of accumulating and preserving every book or 
pamphlet that comes to it without cost, it seems clear that the policy 
of this library should be to transfer its dead and dying books to Har- 
vard to be properly embalmed and registered. 
A library may also be likened to a garden in which one may 
wander, picking the flowers and fruit which seem attractive, or in which 
one may try to produce some new beauties or utilities by combinations 
or eliminations of certain characters of what is already there. But 
the garden must be kept properly weeded if it is to be a success. 
The old army proverb that "no amount of too short bed will 
make a man comfortable" applies to the library in which one cannot find 
the information desired, but in many cases the book or article which 
the research student wants has never been written, or at all events, 
printed. I found this to be the case in my enquiry as to the dif 
ferences between the libraries of women*s colleges and those of men's 
colleges to which I have just referred. 
If ou do not find in your garden the special combination of 
pineapple and potato which you have in mind, remember that you will 
probably not find it in any garden, and that you can have the pleasure 
of trying to produce it yourself and thus contribute to the joy of na- 
tions. Sometimes too much research gives unsatisfactory results, as 
when you find that the subject on which you wish to give an address 
has been entirely covered by others. 6 
The library may also be likened to a gymnasium, in that it is 
a place where the intellectual and emotional facilities may be exercised 
and trained. Here one may learn how to master the parallel bars of 
memory, to take the long jump to conclusions, see how tne world looks 
upside down without becoming giddy9 to use the flying trapeze of im- 
too 
agination without bumping against serious obstacles of fact* Here, al- 
so, one may train and cultivate one’s sense of beauty, or one’s appre- 
ciation of the funny side of life, or may compare what the wisest and 
best men of all countries and of all times have thought and said about 
obligations and duties, and about that which lies beyond the veil. 
One may find here the materials for a course of soul massage, but as a 
rule this should not be used for this purpose, at all events, before 
one is fifty years old. Sel: hypnotization is a dangerous business. 
Genuine emotion is a powerful force but it is not wise uO waste it, or 
to seek for means of arousing it merely as a source of pleasure or as 
a means of passing the time. Emotionalism is somewhat like alcoholism, 
it produces weakening or loss of the normal powers of judgment and of 
will, and indicates an unbalanced nervous system, which at first may be 
only slight and temporary, but which, as a habit, may become pernicious. 
For some people the Horary is like the flying carpet of Ara- 
bian. story, with an improvement which enables it to transport you not 
only to other countries but to other times, and even to countries and 
times which have never yet existed. 
I The mind can travel when the body cannot, and by means of 
books it can face glaciers,and deserts, and savages with impunity,— 
it can ramble through Rome, or lounge in the Islands of the South Pa- 
cific,— it can afishing " with Walton, or Van tyke,— it can look 
in at the new excavations in Kippur, or Egypt, or Crete, or get a view 7 
ox the Mississippi xrom a pilot house with Mark Twain, or of the ex- 
jects ox zhe driver ants or West Africa with miss hingsxey, or ox 
the shooting experiences of the "Two Dianas in Somaliland" with Agnes 
erbert. Arcady, or Atlantis, or Utopia may be viewed in an lour,- you 
may see the ashes sifting down on Pompeii, ox the banners waving in the 
lists of the Pield of the Cloth of Gold, or the brack draped streets 
r\ 
of Washington the morning after the assassination of Lincoln. 
t /hen I was in college fifty years ago, the Library was not 
recognized as a part or the system or instruction. Ho professor ever 
rererred the students to it, or suggested any use or the dooks in it. 
It contained aoout 15,000 volumes, and was open on Saturday mornings 
xrom y to 12. Each student could sorrow two booxs, many or them did 
or more 
not sorrow any, and I always found it easy to get hair a dozen students 
to give me permission to sorrow for them, so that I usually lelt with 
as many boohs as I could conveniently carry. 
During the loug summer vacations I used to make a burglarious 
entrance into the liorary by an attic trap door, a ciimo over the 
roof, etc., and then I had long hours of enjoyment. I had no wise li- 
brarian to guide me,- I simply tried every boolc on the shelves, shimming 
and shipping through the majority, and really reading those which in- 
terested me, and if there had been a librarian there I should have care- 
fully kept away, j Mr. ireaeric Harrison declares that tills sort ox 
miscellaneous reading gorges ana enfeebles the intellect so that it can- 
not properly develop. On the other hand, hr. Arthur ballour says that 
jiir. iiarrison has no evidence to prove this.(1) "It is true no douot 
(1) The pleasures of reading, by A. J. xalfour. Edinburg, 1888, p. 14. 8 
that many learned, people are dull; but there is no indication that they 
are dull because they are learned. True dullness is seldom acquired; 
it is a natural grace. Pill a dull man to the brim with knowledge 
and he will not become less dull as the enthusiasts lor education vain- 
ly imagine; neither will he "become duller, as Mr. Harrison appears to 
suppose*** But whereas his dullness would, if left to itself, have Been 
merely vacuous, it may have become, under careful cultivation preten- 
tious and pedantic. 11 
I cannot tell whether my example supports the view of Mr. 
Harrison or of Mr. Balfour, all I can say is that my experience in the 
college library has been very useful to me, ano. that X itill shim and 
ship more than three thousand books a year to my own pleasure, it not 
for others1 benefit. 
I give this personal note in order that you may understand, 
and make allowances for, the special point of view from which I am 
about to consider the possible uses of this library. 
When we consider what this library may,or should, be to 
the students of this college, - to the yoiuig women, - the young la- 
dies,-the girls,- if there are any girls here, it seems clear that on- 
ly a very few general statements can be made. 
It is intended to be a source of information on every sub- 
ject in which they should be interested, but it should also be a source 
of pleasure in which every one, in any mood, can find something which 
will interest her, which will seem as if it had been expressly written 
for her, which will advise her when in doubt, be restful when she is 
tired, amuse and stimulateher when she is languid and bored. 
Ho one student will require many books for all these pur- 
poses, hut no two students will want the same books, so that the libra- 
ry will require a considerable stock to supply all needs. 9 
But, the student will perhaps say, How an I to find the 
hooks I want, when I don*t even know what they are or who wrote them?- 
How an I to find in this wilderness garden the particular flower or 
fruit which will suit me, when I may not know it when I see it? 
That brings up the question of ”How to use a library,” a subject 
which ought to receive more attention than it does in schemes of univer- 
sity and college instruction. A graduate of Badcliffe ought to know 
what are the best reference books, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, 
anthologies, etc., and in particular those which best serve her spe- 
cial! needs. These are books to be used as tools, not to be read. 
She ought to know how to begin a research in almost any branch of his- 
tory, literature, philosophy ©r theology, and in the special branches 
of science, applied science or art in which she is interested. 
All these are matters in which instruction can be usefully- 
given by methods well known, and which are not difficult to understand* 
The important thing in this , , as in other branches of education, is 
to find out how the student can be made to want to learn about it. 
Hesiod1s classification of men, no doubt, applies also to 
the students in this college - there are those who understand of them- 
selves the use and pleasure of books, there are those who can under- 
stand and appreciate these things when they are explained to them, 
and there are those who can neither understand them of themselves nor 
the 
when they are explained to them. Bor the first and last of these three 
classes, the librarian can do little, but for the second class it is 
possible to do much. 
Of course, to find a name in a directory you must know how 
to spell it, and if you do not know the name of the author or the ti- 
tle of the book, or its subject, the quest is a little difficult. 10 
Yet, in a certain way, this indicates a part of the information 
which the educated woman should have acquired in the college library. 
She needs to know what are the hundred or so best hooks for her, the 
hooks which she will wish to own and have always with her, the hooks 
which are to he her companions and friends. She cannot learn this 
from hihliographies, or from catalogues, or from professors, she must 
find them out hy actual trial, hy continued browsing among hooks old and 
new. 
In talking with graduates of several of the leading women*s 
colleges in this country, I have found that they knew little about the 
library beyond the particular reference and collateral reading hooks 
which they had used* They did not seem to have wandered about the 
library testing and tasting a hook here and there. They said when they 
were in the library thejr had no time for anything but reference work, 
and that for their own leisure reading in their rooms, they got books 
from other libraries. They did not know whether the library contained 
any books specially intended for women, or not. 
This seemed to me to indicate something lacking somewhere, 
but whether it was in the girl, or in the character of the books in the 
college library, or in the methods used to induce the students to use 
the library, I do not know. 
I have alluded to the fact that no difference s seem to 
exist between the libraries of colleges for men and of those for 
women. To use the words of a librarian "There is no flavor of the 
exclusively feminine attaching itself to the library of a woman*s 
college any more than to the curriculum. ** So far as the literature 
relating to the curriculum is concerned, this may be well, but when it 
comes to providing browsing ground where the girls may find out what 
are the books which they want for their very own, it seems possible 11 
that a little flavor of the exclusively feminine might he desirable. 
I should like to see in every college library a browsing cor- 
ner, not arranged according to the decimal, or the progressive, or 
any other system of cla,ssification, which should be what Mr* Balfour 
describes as a "peaceful desert of literature as yet unclaimed by tu- 
tors or coaches, where it might be possible for the student to wander, 
even perhaps to stray, at her own pleasure without finding every beauty 
labelled, every difficulty engineered, every nook surveyed." 
T is browsing corner should contain no book associated with 
memories of study, and no book recommended by any professor for refer- 
ence or for collateral reading* I could make some suggestions for a 
few of these books for a man's college, - such as books on sport, or 
travels with a large sporting element, or life in the woods, the history 
of flat land , Montaigne, the history of magic of Eliphas Levi, 
Lavengro and the Romany Rye, a set of Punch, and of Puck, etc. 
For the browsing corner of the woman's college library I 
think it wise to make no specific suggestions, but I should place in it 
a few of the best illustrations of the taste of women at different 
times and in different countries in matters of applied art. 
According to the catalogue of this library it contains no 
book on lace, or on tapestry, but I would admit a few books of this 
kind to the browsing corner, which should also contain a special se- • 
lection of biographies and fiction and of the latest poetry. I 
t 
should give the students an opportunity of seeing in the browsing cor- 
ner, some of the newest books, and for this purpose the method adopted 
in some clubs seems a good one. Por example, in the Century Association 
of Hew York, there are always six of the latest books on the table. 
These books are furnished by subscription to a circulating library, and 
are changed every two weeks. One of them is usually a novel, the others are book? of travel, and sport, essays, biographies, etc., 
books that are being noticed in the daily and weekty press; they are 
much used but seldom read through. 
A lady of great experience in library management to whom I 
mentioned this browsing corner idea, highly approved of it and went 
on to suggest that two or three rocking chairs and an upholstered 
window seat with plenty of sofa pillows would improve it. I think they 
would. 
In his book on the private Mr Humphreys has a 
section on "Boudoir libraries," which begins ‘Women have their ov/n 
way of loving books." This is probably true, just as they have their own 
way, (in several senses) about most things. The greater part of this 
section is devoted to the bindings which are appropriate for a boudoir 
library and closes with the essay "On my lady’s library," given in the 
Spectator. I suppose you all remember it. Elsewhere he says that 
every bed room should have a book case, and that house maids are seldom 
bibliophiles. 
If I only knew what books, or what kinds of books, each of you 
will have in her own library' twenty five years from now, I could 
prepare an address which would be of great interest to historians 
t ,r-». 
and sociologists. But I can only say that the character of your pri- 
vate libraries will depend much on the manner in which you have used 
this library. 
Owing to the wide diffusion of public library facilities, and 
perhaps for other reasons, men do not now accumulate books for their 
private use to the extent that they used to do. They do,not* as a rule 
have as much affection for their books, they have not given as much 
time, and trouble, and sacrifice to obtain certain books as their 
(l) Humphreys, Arthur L. The private library. What we do know, what we 
don’t know, what we ought to know about our books, H.Y. Bost., 1897. 13 
grandfathers did. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes used to say that there 
was an invisible thread connecting each hook in his library with his 
heart and brain, and that it was cruel to ask him to part with any of 
his treasures merely because they would be more useful in a general li- 
brary* 
I have said little about the practical utilities of books or 
of libraries. In this library are gathered the most important records 
of the world* s memory, of the progress of man from the days when Accad 
ruled the land between the and the first dynasty was building in 
the valley of the ITile. 
The dreams and hopes, the joys and sorrows, the sayings and 
doings of the wisest men of all times and of all countries are gathered 
here, and it is from these that out teachers, our legislators and our 
people must draw the stores and weapons with fchich to contend with the 
same ignorance, indolense, folly and vice which have led to the down- 
fall of the kingdoms and cities of long ago. "In this library there 
are also suggestions as to beautiful and as to unpleasant things in 
this world of which it is difficult to see the use. Of such are the 
Aurora, and the hidden anemone which no one sees, and the grief for the 
loss of a dear one, mother or child. There is no unit of measure for 
the utility of these things," but they are necessary. 
I have no doubt that you have all heard of the "Hiilobiblon of 
Richard de Bury" and that some of your have read this eloquent appeal 
for the collection and preservation of books. He "We must consi- 
der what pleasantness of teaching there is in books, how easy, how se- 
cret I Hoy/ safely we lay bare the poverty of human ignorance to books 
without feeling any shame! They are masters who instruct us without 
rod or ferule, without angry words,*4* if you come to them they are not 
asleep; if you ask and enquire of them, 'they do not withdraw themselves 
*** They do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. 14 
"0 books, who alone are liberal and free*** ye are the wells 
of living waters*** the most delightful ears of corn, full of grain;*** 
fig trees that are never barren, lamps always in readiness.” 
It should be observed, however, that the learned bishop 
meant these eulogies ohiefly for old books or what he calls “the well 
tested labours of the Ancients," of whom he says that "whether they had 
by nature a greater vigour of mental sagacity, or whether they perhaps 
indulged in closer application to study*** one thing we are pretty clear 
about, that their successors are barely capable of discussing the dis- 
coveries of their forerunners." 
We have no list of the large collection of books and manuscripts 
which he made, but it is probable that very few of them would be read 
if they were in our libraries, and I think this would also apply to 
a considerable number of the hundred best books named by Lord Acton. 
We can, all of us, however, join in the eulogy of de Bury, with the 
simple qualification that for us it applies to .our books, the books 
which we know and love. 
It is, perhaps, well that in your student life you should 
not he oppress d by too keen a sense of the responsibilities which will 
weigh upon you as women in the coming years. These responsibilities 
will relate mainly to what you can and should do for the benefit of 
♦ 
others* Much of what you are now learning in order to pass examination 
will, for most of you, be soon forgotten because you will have 
no occasion to use it, but the sources of this information and the me 
thods o finding and using these sources you will not forget. If you 
have acquired in this library the knowledge as to what books interest 15 
you, it will be one of the most important benefits which you can 
derive from your college course.